CHAPTER I THE EARLY LITERATURE One Sunday morning, about the year 1661, a group of Indians was gathered around a noble-looking man, listening to a story he was reading. It was summer and the day was beautiful, and the little Indian children who sat listening were so interested that not even the thought of their favorite haunts by brookside or meadow could tempt them from the spot. The story was about... more...

Read at the Crowning of the Serra Statue, Monterey, Nov. 23, 1913. The fickle world ofttimes applauds the riseOf men whose laurels are but vainly won,Whose deeds their names could not immortalizeFor their soul-toils were wrought for transient ends;But heroes of the Cross, they truly greatShall live, their halo shall no hand of fate Have power to rob, albeit oblivious yearsMay veil the radiance of their... more...

The Chimney-Pots. y windows look across the roofs of the crowded city and my thoughts often take their suggestion from the life that is manifest at my neighbors' windows and on these roofs. Across the way, one story lower than our own, there dwells "with his subsidiary parents" a little lad who has been ill for several weeks. After his household is up and dressed I regularly discover him... more...

CHAPTER I THE EARLY AGES The Chinese are unquestionably the oldest nation in the world, and their history goes back to a period to which no prudent historian will attempt to give a precise date. They speak the language and observe the same social and political customs that they did several thousand years before the Christian era, and they are the only living representatives to-day of a people and... more...

CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE CHINESE LANGUAGE If the Chinese people were to file one by one past a given point, the interesting procession would never come to an end. Before the last man of those living to-day had gone by, another and a new generation would have grown up, and so on for ever and ever. The importance, as a factor in the sum of human affairs, of this vast nation,—of its language, of its... more...

CHAPTER I—THE NÜ-CHÊNS AND KITANS The Manchus are descended from a branch of certain wild Tungusic nomads, who were known in the ninth century as the Nü-chêns, a name which has been said to mean "west of the sea." The cradle of their race lay at the base of the Ever-White Mountains, due north of Korea, and was fertilised by the head waters of the Yalu River. In an illustrated Chinese work... more...

On Two Sides of the Eastern Seas It is three days’ easy journey from Japan to China. It is doubtful whether anywhere in the world another journey of the same length brings with it such a complete change of political temper and belief. Certainly it is greater than the alteration perceived in journeying directly from San Francisco to Shanghai. The difference is not one in customs and modes of life;... more...

I THE WIDOW HO One day in the early dawn, a distinguished mandarin was leaving the temple of the City God. It was his duty to visit this temple on the first and fifteenth of the moon, whilst the city was still asleep, to offer incense and adoration to the stern-looking figure enshrined within. This mandarin was Shih-Kung, and a juster or more upright official did not exist in all the fair provinces of... more...

THE ANALECTS BOOK I On Learning—Miscellaneous Sayings:— "To learn," said the Master, "and then to practise opportunely what one has learnt—does not this bring with it a sense of satisfaction? "To have associates in study coming to one from distant parts—does not this also mean pleasure in store? "And are not those who, while not... more...

INTRODUCTION Whatever its outward expression, human thought remains essentially unchanged and, throughout all of its manifestations, is fundamentally the same. Varying phases are but accidents and underneath the divers wrappings of historic periods or different civilizations, the heart as well as the mind of man has been moved by the same desires. Art possesses a unity like that of nature. It is... more...